Singer Demi Lovato performs during the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. More than 800 March for Our Lives events, organized by survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting on February 14 that left 17 dead, are taking place around the world to call for legislative action to address school safety and gun violence. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Demi Lovato Visits Music Choice at Music Choice on March 22, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Demi Lovato performs live exclusively for American Airlines AAdvantage¨ Mastercard¨ cardmembers at House of Blues Dallas on Friday, February 9th in Dallas, TX. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Mastercard)

Demi Lovato performs onstage during Power 96.1?s Jingle Ball 2017 Presented by Capital One at Philips Arena on December 15, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Marcus Ingram/Getty Images for iHeartMedia )

Demi Lovato greets Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students onstage after performing at the "March for Our Lives" rally in support of gun control in Washington, Saturday, March 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

TOPSHOT - Singer Demi Lovato sings at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC on March 24, 2018.
Galvanized by a massacre at a Florida high school, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in cities across the United States on Saturday in the biggest protest for gun control in a generation. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas KammNICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Kehlani during her performance at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Kehlani sings during her performance at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Kehlani during her performance at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Kehlani sings during her performance at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Demi Lovato between two dancers during her concert at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Demi Lovato during her performance at at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Demi Lovato’s near-death overdose in July was likely caused by freebasing Oxycodone laced with fentanyl, the same high-powered opioid that was implicated in the deaths of Prince and Lil Peep, TMZ reported.

The 25-year-old singer had been on a downward spiral for several months after admitting she had relapsed after six years of sobriety. On the morning of July 24, she returned to her Los Angeles home after being at a birthday party at a West Hollywood club on the Sunset Strip, TMZ reported.

At about 4 a.m., she texted a drug dealer she had been using since April to come to her house, TMZ said. The two freebased Oxycodone, an opioid pain reliever, on tin foil.

What Lovato didn’t know is that the dealer often bought dirty drugs from sources in Mexico, and the opioids he brought to Lovato’s house were laced with fentanyl, TMZ said.

Fentanyl, an synthetic opioid, is similar to morphine and heroin but is 50 to 100 times more potent, and is typically reserved for people with severe pain following surgery or for patients needing palliative care, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

The dealer fled the house after noticing Lovato passed out in bed, breathing heavily, TMZ said. Someone from Lovato’s staff found her in bed at around 11:30 a.m. and called 911. Either someone from her staff or responding paramedics administered Narcan, a medication designed to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose.

Narcan can either be injected by people with professional training or given in the form of a nasal spray that’s available over-the-counter in some states or through a doctor’s prescription, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

The overdose put Lovato into Cedars Sinai Medical Center for two weeks, where she reportedly suffered serious complications, including extreme nausea, high fever and other ailments.

There are reports that Lovato refused to disclose what drug she had been using, initially leading to the assumption that she had overdosed on heroin. It has never been officially revealed what drug she overdosed on.

On Nov. 15, New York rapper Lil Peep, suffered a a fatal overdose while in Tucson, Arizona, where the 21-year-old was to hold a concert in support of his debut album, “Come Over When You’re Sober (Part One).” Medical examiners subsequently ruled that he died of an overdose of the anti-anxiety medication Xanax and fentanyl.

In April, Minnesota prosecutors announced that Prince’s April 21, 2016 death was caused by taking a counterfeit version of the painkiller Vicodin that had been laced with fentanyl. Prince had long struggled with an addiction to prescription painkillers, and his representatives were in the process of seeking treatment for him.

“In all likelihood, Prince had no idea he was taking a counterfeit pill that could kill him,” Mark Metz, Carver County Attorney said at a news conference. “Others around Prince also likely did not know that the pills were counterfeit containing fentanyl.”

It also was revealed in April that the October 2017 death of legendary rocker Tom Petty, 66, was due to an accidental overdose of drugs, including fentanyl and Oxycontin, a trade name for Oxycodone, which he had been prescribed for a broken hip and other medical issues.

Experts say fentanyl has increasingly become a culprit in the nation’s opioid addiction crisis, contributing to thousands of overdose and a rise in fatalities, the Washington Post reported in 2017. In 24 of the nation’s largest cities and the counties that surround them, fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased nearly 600 percent from 2014 to 2016, according to county health departments nationwide.

Lovato had long dealt with drug and alcohol issues, but had been sober for years before recently relapsing. In June, she released the confessional single “Sober,” in which she sings, “Mama, I’m sorry I’m not sober anymore/Daddy, please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor/To the ones who never left me, we’ve been down this road before/I’m so sorry I’m not sober anymore.”

After she was released to the hospital, she went to a rehabilitation facility, somewhere out of California. She expects to stay there for several months and undergo “an extensive program to ensure she gets the help she needs,” a source told E! News. Last week, she and her mother also flew to Chicago to receive a few days of treatment from a renowned addiction specialist, TMZ added.

The treatment means she had to cancel her tour’s remaining shows in Mexico and South America, the Daily Mail said.

Martha Ross is a features writer who covers everything and anything related to popular culture, society, health, women’s issues and families. A native of the East Bay and a graduate of Northwestern University and Mills College, she’s also a former hard-news and investigative reporter, covering crime and local politics.